PTS Update 33 - Feedback Thread for Account Wide Achievements

  • LoneStar2911
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    evidently there are more people who spam [E] through the dialogue than people who take their time to see the story. I guess if they want to save space in the game, they can just get rid of all of those pesky voice actors since evidently nobody cares about the story amirite?

    Don’t even joke about that. That would break my heart.
  • alberichtano
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    Diora wrote: »
    On my main account, I have chosen one alt that i'll play besides my main. She hasn't really done much in game, so i won't need achievements to remind me.

    I'm currently going to run her through rivenspire/greymoor/markarth so she can experience the markarth epilogue before it goes away, because i love those characters and am extremely sad that particular epilogue is going to be unreachable for any alt going forward.

    The rest of my alts, several of which are as old as my main, will be parked until at least after high isle.

    I have a couple other FTP accounts. I think I will make my "alts" be one character from each of those accounts, so I can play through the world again "fresh" the only way it will be possible.

    But then, if you want houses, pets, mounts etc, you will have to buy them again. *adjusts my tinfoil hat a bit* ;)
  • old_scopie1945
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    Diora wrote: »
    On my main account, I have chosen one alt that i'll play besides my main. She hasn't really done much in game, so i won't need achievements to remind me.

    I'm currently going to run her through rivenspire/greymoor/markarth so she can experience the markarth epilogue before it goes away, because i love those characters and am extremely sad that particular epilogue is going to be unreachable for any alt going forward.

    The rest of my alts, several of which are as old as my main, will be parked until at least after high isle.

    I have a couple other FTP accounts. I think I will make my "alts" be one character from each of those accounts, so I can play through the world again "fresh" the only way it will be possible.

    But then, if you want houses, pets, mounts etc, you will have to buy them again. *adjusts my tinfoil hat a bit* ;)

    And that is the problem. In that case hold your nerve and don't put your hand in your pocket. Give ZOS nothing because that is what they deserve. At the end of the day do you really need the Crown Store, you can get along without it. They will get enough by forcing you to buy new accounts and possibly ESO plus on the character you are running at the time.
  • Kesstryl
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    I've been playing around on PTS, unfortunately it's on EU so I couldn't migrate my live toons. I've been playing through Greymoor and got up to a point where NPCs had random dialogue about the Queen's murder. I rolled another alt level 3, and went to the same spot. Those NPCs are definitely tied to quest stages because they didn't appear for my level 3 alt. If they can have NPC specific dialogue fire off quest stages, why can't they do that for any NPC dialogue tied to achievements? All they have to do is move those quest side, and the world would at least make sense again.
    HEARTHLIGHT - A guild for housing enthusiasts! Contact @Kesstryl in-game to join.
  • newtinmpls
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    Zezin wrote: »
    That's the thing about doing content a second time though, it's not fresh anymore and it won't ever be again, there's also an argument to be said on how many times people replay content like quests and for those who do how many actually listen to the story a second time.

    I both agree and disagree...

    I recently replayed the "Wilderking" story line - haven't done it in at least 4-5 years, and though I vaguely recalled it, I had not remembered the details, and I definitely did listen to the story - the "second time".

    Then played it through again within a few weeks on yet another character and didn't really take time to savor the dialogue..until I got to one bit that I'd apparently missed the "second time round" (and completely did not recall from the "first time around") and it turned out to be so bittersweet that I kinda just sat for a while and appreciated it.

    Suppose I will never get that story again...
    Tenesi Faryon of Telvanni - Dunmer Sorceress who deliberately sought sacrifice into Cold Harbor to rescue her beloved.
    Hisa Ni Caemaire - Altmer Sorceress, member of the Order Draconis and Adept of the House of Dibella.
    Broken Branch Toothmaul - goblin (for my goblin characters, I use either orsimer or bosmer templates) Templar, member of the Order Draconis and persistently unskilled pickpocket
    Mol gro Durga - Orsimer Socerer/Battlemage who died the first time when the Nibenay Valley chapterhouse of the Order Draconis was destroyed, then went back to Cold Harbor to rescue his second/partner who was still captive. He overestimated his resistance to the hopelessness of Oblivion, about to give up, and looked up to see the golden glow of atherius surrounding a beautiful young woman who extended her hand to him and said "I can help you". He carried Fianna Kingsley out of Cold Harbor on his shoulder. He carried Alvard Stower under one arm. He also irritated the Prophet who had intended the portal for only Mol and Lyris.
    ***
    Order Draconis - well c'mon there has to be some explanation for all those dragon tattoos.
    House of Dibella - If you have ever seen or read "Memoirs of a Geisha" that's just the beginning...
    Nibenay Valley Chapterhouse - Where now stands only desolate ground and a dolmen there once was a thriving community supporting one of the major chapterhouses of the Order Draconis
  • SilverBride
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    The bottom line is that losing our characters' individual histories is very distressing for many of us. Some may not understand this but it is bringing up very real emotions for many players, myself included. We put a lot of ourselves into developing our characters as individuals. They all have their own personalities and the thought of losing that is heartbreaking.

    Then there is the fact that we lose replayability. I've enjoyed the story every time I've played through it, the same way we enjoy a favorite movie we've seen multiple times. I want to be able to play through every quest and fight every world boss and enjoy every delve and dolmen and public dungeon myself, but having these all show as complete on the map will make this very difficult to track.

    Please consider putting this on hold.
    Edited by SilverBride on March 2, 2022 4:51AM
    PCNA
  • silvereyes
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    So here's a hopeful thought: if the work required to fix zone guide and NPC reactions can happen server-side / database-side, could the developers still be fixing those over the following work week despite the ongoing Stadia certification?

    It wouldn't be the first time they've slipped in some stealth changes between the last PTS incremental and launch, and they don't have to recertify the game client every time they do a server maintenance.

    I admit this is probably wishful thinking, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of them launching with broken dialog and zone guide. I've never known ZOS to be irrational. If the whole point of deleting character data was to prepare for an upcoming surge in player activity, that seems an odd time to leave the game in such a noticeably broken state.
  • proprio.meb16_ESO
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    I fear the surge in player activity and broken things wont be enough of a problem... new players wont be able to fully evaluate the issue until they decide to create an alt, and part of old players will not care, for their alts are not questing at all or they're interested just in getting skill points with them.

    The immediately affected players are those of us loving the lore, loving to quest, still concerned about the change and still adding thoughts to this thread... people with one main that has done almost everything (and plans for new questing alts, or with already questing alts running around in Tamriel), and people who has diversified their playthoughs and play their toons in parallel (probably the most affected of all).
    Edited by proprio.meb16_ESO on March 2, 2022 10:08AM
  • Kesstryl
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    silvereyes wrote: »
    So here's a hopeful thought: if the work required to fix zone guide and NPC reactions can happen server-side / database-side, could the developers still be fixing those over the following work week despite the ongoing Stadia certification?

    It wouldn't be the first time they've slipped in some stealth changes between the last PTS incremental and launch, and they don't have to recertify the game client every time they do a server maintenance.

    I admit this is probably wishful thinking, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of them launching with broken dialog and zone guide. I've never known ZOS to be irrational. If the whole point of deleting character data was to prepare for an upcoming surge in player activity, that seems an odd time to leave the game in such a noticeably broken state.

    If they are, why didn't they just tell us, either in PTS notes as something known to be an issue but being worked on, addressed in the Q&A, or answered in this feedback thread or, other places this issue has been brought up? Why the silent treatment and lack of communication? This could be alleviated if they do plan to fix this and would simply tell us. I even made a separate thread for it, nothing but silence.

    Edit - If they would communicate that they are fixing this, I would stop being a squeaky wheel about it. Even better, I would edit every single one of my comments in places other than this thread to stop providing negative news to the community. Hell, I might even laud them for deciding to communicate because it would show they care about our concerns.
    Edited by Kesstryl on March 2, 2022 11:43AM
    HEARTHLIGHT - A guild for housing enthusiasts! Contact @Kesstryl in-game to join.
  • Kesstryl
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    I fear the surge in player activity and broken things wont be enough of a problem... new players wont be able to fully evaluate the issue until they decide to create an alt, and part of old players will not care, for their alts are not questing at all or they're interested just in getting skill points with them.

    The immediately affected players are those of us loving the lore, loving to quest, still concerned about the change and still adding thoughts to this thread... people with one main that has done almost everything (and plans for new questing alts, or with already questing alts running around in Tamriel), and people who has diversified their playthoughs and play their toons in parallel (probably the most affected of all).

    I wish there was someone higher up I could get in communication with. I can't believe Bethesda, creator of the Elder Scrolls series, is even allowing this. Do they even know?
    HEARTHLIGHT - A guild for housing enthusiasts! Contact @Kesstryl in-game to join.
  • karthrag_inak
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    Please consider putting this on hold.

    This one doubts anyone relevant is actually reading these posts, despite many customers' anxiety and disgust with this change to a system they have often paid extra money to engage in (after all, it costs money to get all character slots, yes?).

    Unfortunately, AwA is obviously a done deal, and completely unavoidable, unless someone can find a bug or unintended consequence that ZOS would consider game-breaking. Something equivalent to what caused 2-player mounts to be postponed after arriving on PTS last year. If such a thing does not exist, this "feature" will be published, despite the majority of these feedback threads' participants' sentiments against it. Apparently neither gimped character stories and interactions nor a "handful" of broken quests qualify in ZOS' eyes.
    PC-NA : 19 Khajiit and 1 Fishy-cat with fluffy delusions. cp3600
    GM of Imperial Gold Reserve trading guild (started in 2017) since 2/2022
  • karthrag_inak
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    Khajiit knows one thing, at the very least. Should this atrocity make its way to live, this one will not purchase any thing from ZOS again. 4 ESO+ accounts have been cancelled already, just for the PTS-inducing flashbacks to SWG (thanks ZOS - saved over 260 bucks over the past month on the two that were about to come due!), and no expansions or other DLC purchases are on the horizon.

    Is ok, though. Khajiit has nearly 11k hours played time on main account. He has gotten his money's worth :smile: . Since this one has done every quest in game outside of a few explicit PVP quests on his main, things are going to become very trying with alts, and so Karth has been cramming in delve, public and group dungeon runs for exp and skill points on his 17 other khajiit as kind of a rush-to-the-finish/farewell tour (perhaps not to game, but obviously farewell to new, meaningful content completion).

    Such is life, yes? /emote Bows on stage and salutes empty seats reserved for devs
    PC-NA : 19 Khajiit and 1 Fishy-cat with fluffy delusions. cp3600
    GM of Imperial Gold Reserve trading guild (started in 2017) since 2/2022
  • Kesstryl
    Kesstryl
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    Please consider putting this on hold.

    This one doubts anyone relevant is actually reading these posts, despite many customers' anxiety and disgust with this change to a system they have often paid extra money to engage in (after all, it costs money to get all character slots, yes?).

    Unfortunately, AwA is obviously a done deal, and completely unavoidable, unless someone can find a bug or unintended consequence that ZOS would consider game-breaking. Something equivalent to what caused 2-player mounts to be postponed after arriving on PTS last year. If such a thing does not exist, this "feature" will be published, despite the majority of these feedback threads' participants' sentiments against it. Apparently neither gimped character stories and interactions nor a "handful" of broken quests qualify in ZOS' eyes.

    Which makes me wonder, they know those who care enough to listen to the stories and engage in them are those who immerse themselves into the world on their alts. Since they seem to not care about how people like us interact with the game world on alts, again I ask, why bother with writers and voice actors? If they seem to want to appeal to those who would not care if the game breaks the 4th wall between player and the game world because they know those people likely just click through the quests and don't bother with the details, why even bother spending the extra money on these stories anymore. I just don't get it. Why leave the game broken like this for players who want the immersion and the voice acting and the stories? How can I even leave my game sound turned up and headphones on when NPCs will hail all my alts equally whether they did certain quests or not? It's so obtrusive and jarring. I'm really begging ZOS and the 8 Divines and all the powers that be to please decouple random NPC dialogue in the open world from quest achievements! Please give back achievement only quests for our alts too while you're at it.
    HEARTHLIGHT - A guild for housing enthusiasts! Contact @Kesstryl in-game to join.
  • alberichtano
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    Kesstryl wrote: »
    I've been playing around on PTS, unfortunately it's on EU so I couldn't migrate my live toons. I've been playing through Greymoor and got up to a point where NPCs had random dialogue about the Queen's murder. I rolled another alt level 3, and went to the same spot. Those NPCs are definitely tied to quest stages because they didn't appear for my level 3 alt. If they can have NPC specific dialogue fire off quest stages, why can't they do that for any NPC dialogue tied to achievements? All they have to do is move those quest side, and the world would at least make sense again.

    Wouldn't that require the same kind of data as the achievements do now?
  • CombatCoati
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    Kesstryl wrote: »
    I've been playing around on PTS, unfortunately it's on EU so I couldn't migrate my live toons. I've been playing through Greymoor and got up to a point where NPCs had random dialogue about the Queen's murder. I rolled another alt level 3, and went to the same spot. Those NPCs are definitely tied to quest stages because they didn't appear for my level 3 alt. If they can have NPC specific dialogue fire off quest stages, why can't they do that for any NPC dialogue tied to achievements? All they have to do is move those quest side, and the world would at least make sense again.

    Wouldn't that require the same kind of data as the achievements do now?

    As quests are still tracked per character, they should be able to change the checks which are still against achievements to be against quest completion without producing additional data.
    CAUTION! Rider breaks for resource nodes!
  • wenchmore420b14_ESO
    wenchmore420b14_ESO
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    Kesstryl wrote: »
    silvereyes wrote: »
    So here's a hopeful thought: if the work required to fix zone guide and NPC reactions can happen server-side / database-side, could the developers still be fixing those over the following work week despite the ongoing Stadia certification?

    It wouldn't be the first time they've slipped in some stealth changes between the last PTS incremental and launch, and they don't have to recertify the game client every time they do a server maintenance.

    I admit this is probably wishful thinking, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of them launching with broken dialog and zone guide. I've never known ZOS to be irrational. If the whole point of deleting character data was to prepare for an upcoming surge in player activity, that seems an odd time to leave the game in such a noticeably broken state.

    If they are, why didn't they just tell us, either in PTS notes as something known to be an issue but being worked on, addressed in the Q&A, or answered in this feedback thread or, other places this issue has been brought up? Why the silent treatment and lack of communication? This could be alleviated if they do plan to fix this and would simply tell us. I even made a separate thread for it, nothing but silence.

    Edit - If they would communicate that they are fixing this, I would stop being a squeaky wheel about it. Even better, I would edit every single one of my comments in places other than this thread to stop providing negative news to the community. Hell, I might even laud them for deciding to communicate because it would show they care about our concerns.

    Greetings ZoS.
    Well, not much left for us to say about how we feel about these changes, except the severe lack of communication.
    And sorry, but IMO the "Q&A" we patiently waited for was a joke. The "11th hr - it is for performance reasons" fell flat ".

    I WILL give a hats off and kudos to @ZOS_GinaBruno and @ZOS_Kevin for the extremely hard job you have as being in the middle of this fiasco. Thank you both for all you do to help with community issues. Huzzahs to you!

    So, @ZOS_MattFiror , @ZOS_RichLambert , Pete Hines, Todd Howard, ANYBODY! Are you ACTUALY reading the stories here?
    Have you even seen our feedback in these other threads?
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/599276/preparing-for-the-deployment-of-awa#latest
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/598936/in-the-future-maybe-ask-your-players-for-more-ideas-about-things/p1
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/599258/so-we-have-to-have-global-achievements-because#latest
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/598862/official-discussion-thread-for-update-33-preview-account-wide-achievements-and-more/p1
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/598776/saving-achievement-data#latest
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/599199/please-decouple-npc-reactions-and-broken-quests-from-achievements-save-the-game-from-sheogorath#latest
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/596978/pts-update-33-bug-reports-for-account-wide-achievements/p1

    And this doesn't cover the ones that have been closed.

    To the powers that be, PLEASE tells us something!!! Let us know that you ARE actually listening to and understanding us, the community that has supported ESO for 9+ years. Tell us, "We are looking at options" or tell us "If you don't like it don't paly".
    Let us know if we are being heard or if we are just being ignored!
    Just tell us something! Please!
    Edited by wenchmore420b14_ESO on March 2, 2022 4:38PM
    Drakon Koryn~Oryndill, Rogue~Mage,- CP ~Doesn't matter any more
    NA / PC Beta Member since Nov 2013
    GM~Conclave-of-Shadows, EP Social Guild, ~Proud member of: The Wandering Merchants, Phoenix Rising, Imperial Trade Union & Celestials of Nirn
    Sister Guilds with: Coroner's Report, Children of Skyrim, Sunshine Daydream, Tamriel Fisheries, Knights Arcanum and more
    "Not All Who Wander are Lost"
    #MOREHOUSINGSLOTS
    “When the people that can make the company more successful are sales and marketing people, they end up running the companies. The product people get driven out of the decision making forums, and the companies forget what it means to make great products.”

    _Steve Jobs (The Lost Interview)
  • proprio.meb16_ESO
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    Yeah, thats the main issue and the reason we're sadly gonna lose coherence in alts whatever it takes.

    The balance of space gained from awa would be zero if a parallel per-character quest stage is introduced, in that case it's less work just to get the achievement itself back to be per-character (which is what zos has in fact done with museum quests)... there's no easy workaround to this unless a lot of things are completely redesigned and this ofc won't happen anytime soon :'(
  • Jaraal
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    Kesstryl wrote: »

    Please consider putting this on hold.

    This one doubts anyone relevant is actually reading these posts, despite many customers' anxiety and disgust with this change to a system they have often paid extra money to engage in (after all, it costs money to get all character slots, yes?).

    Unfortunately, AwA is obviously a done deal, and completely unavoidable, unless someone can find a bug or unintended consequence that ZOS would consider game-breaking. Something equivalent to what caused 2-player mounts to be postponed after arriving on PTS last year. If such a thing does not exist, this "feature" will be published, despite the majority of these feedback threads' participants' sentiments against it. Apparently neither gimped character stories and interactions nor a "handful" of broken quests qualify in ZOS' eyes.

    Which makes me wonder, they know those who care enough to listen to the stories and engage in them are those who immerse themselves into the world on their alts. Since they seem to not care about how people like us interact with the game world on alts, again I ask, why bother with writers and voice actors? If they seem to want to appeal to those who would not care if the game breaks the 4th wall between player and the game world because they know those people likely just click through the quests and don't bother with the details, why even bother spending the extra money on these stories anymore. I just don't get it. Why leave the game broken like this for players who want the immersion and the voice acting and the stories? How can I even leave my game sound turned up and headphones on when NPCs will hail all my alts equally whether they did certain quests or not? It's so obtrusive and jarring. I'm really begging ZOS and the 8 Divines and all the powers that be to please decouple random NPC dialogue in the open world from quest achievements! Please give back achievement only quests for our alts too while you're at it.

    Since they've already proven that they value data quantity over game quality, things like voice acting and quest immersion could in fact be the next to go. If we keep complaining about NPCs in the world randomly commenting to our alts about things they never did, expecting ZOS to remove the interaction all together seems to be their next logical step. I mean, it would certainly save them some data space that they could use to sell us something else with in the future, right?
    RIP Bosmer Nation. 4/4/14 - 2/25/19.
  • Kesstryl
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    Yeah, thats the main issue and the reason we're sadly gonna lose coherence in alts whatever it takes.

    The balance of space gained from awa would be zero if a parallel per-character quest stage is introduced, in that case it's less work just to get the achievement itself back to be per-character (which is what zos has in fact done with museum quests)... there's no easy workaround to this unless a lot of things are completely redesigned and this ofc won't happen anytime soon :'(

    They have NPCs commenting on the state of the world that already fire off quest stages, and they disappear when the quest is updated. I found that out last night on PTS. It's a matter of a simple quest check, data which is already loaded per character anyway. There will be no database adding to move those checks from achievements to the last quest completed in the story arc.
    Edited by Kesstryl on March 2, 2022 4:51PM
    HEARTHLIGHT - A guild for housing enthusiasts! Contact @Kesstryl in-game to join.
  • karthrag_inak
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    Hey, silver lining time. No more :
    • "You have no idea how long I've been looking for you"
    • "Dragons...In your own homeland...."
    • "How would you like to do something worthwhile?"

    -sigh-. Yeah, this one is not appeased either.
    PC-NA : 19 Khajiit and 1 Fishy-cat with fluffy delusions. cp3600
    GM of Imperial Gold Reserve trading guild (started in 2017) since 2/2022
  • deleted221106-002999
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    Kesstryl wrote: »

    I wish there was someone higher up I could get in communication with. I can't believe Bethesda, creator of the Elder Scrolls series, is even allowing this. Do they even know?

    From TOS:
    tos wrote:
    If You have any questions about these Terms of Service or otherwise need to contact ZeniMax for any reason, You can reach us at:

    ZeniMax Media Inc. 1370 Piccard Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850 USA

    Attn: ZeniMax Customer Support

    Website: help.bethesda.net

    Telephone:

    From North America dial 1-844-ZENIMAX (1-844-936-4629);

    From outside the U.S., +1-410-220-2853 (International rates may apply, please contact Your carrier for details)

    There's also an email for complaints buried deeply in that, too: ODRnotice@zenimax.com

    Good luck; the way the tos is written expect to be 'thanked for your feedback' - I leave it to your imagination to work out exactly what that means.
  • Araneae6537
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    The bottom line is that losing our characters' individual histories is very distressing for many of us. Some may not understand this but it is bringing up very real emotions for many players, myself included. We put a lot of ourselves into developing our characters as individuals. They all have their own personalities and the thought of losing that is heartbreaking.

    Then there is the fact that we lose replayability. I've enjoyed the story every time I've played through it, the same way we enjoy a favorite movie we've seen multiple times. I want to be able to play through every quest and fight every world boss and enjoy every delve and dolmen and public dungeon myself, but having these all show as complete on the map will make this very difficult to track.

    Please consider putting this on hold.

    This, so much. Just like that the game changed from being a wonderful escape and help for me to contributing to a negative mental state. I’m not bashing anyone or anything. I’m saying how much I love the game, the world, the characters and how I interact with all of those with my different characters, each of which are important to me with their own stories which have evolved with which quests they’ve done and the characters and world they’ve interacted with along the way.

    Not being notified I’ve harvested 100 bast on a new character — don’t care at all, remove such things entirely if it helps performance.

    Not getting achievement pop-ups for completing delves, dungeons and trials and relevant achievements (things like assassin, conqueror, no death — I don’t care how many whatever I’ve cumulatively killed there), a shame, I’ll miss, but I can live with.

    Not being able to fully do quests and have all NPC interactions possible on new characters, having the world praise or revile them for choices made with other characters, completely unacceptable, game-breaking and, for me, heart-breaking. :cry:
    Edited by Araneae6537 on March 2, 2022 5:50PM
  • SilverBride
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    Not being able to fully do quests and have all NPC interactions possible on new characters, having the world prize or revile them for choices made with other characters, completely unacceptable, game-breaking and, for me, heart-breaking. :cry:

    That is the worst part for me and I feel like crying myself.

    ESO is not just a game. It's an actual world full of real people where we can make friends and escape the stresses of these past 2 years. Part of that escape is creating characters that we can "become" for a little while when we log in.

    I do realize that our characters aren't "real" but the relaxation and escape they provide is.

    My heart is breaking.
    PCNA
  • KMarble
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    silvereyes wrote: »
    So here's a hopeful thought: if the work required to fix zone guide and NPC reactions can happen server-side / database-side, could the developers still be fixing those over the following work week despite the ongoing Stadia certification?

    It wouldn't be the first time they've slipped in some stealth changes between the last PTS incremental and launch, and they don't have to recertify the game client every time they do a server maintenance.

    I admit this is probably wishful thinking, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of them launching with broken dialog and zone guide. I've never known ZOS to be irrational. If the whole point of deleting character data was to prepare for an upcoming surge in player activity, that seems an odd time to leave the game in such a noticeably broken state.

    If I'd read something along these lines in the Q&A:

    "Thank you for all the feedback on the PTS sub-forum. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time during this testing cycle to fix all the quests that were affected by AWA, but that doesn't mean we won't. We ask for your patience while we fix them as time permits."


    My reaction would be different, and I'd be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. I don't like to make decisions without having all the information I can gather, so for now I'll do nothing (= no more purchases - chapter(s), subscription and crown store items - from me) and will keep an eye on possible fixes in the live game and notes in the forum. If I see some action towards fixes, I'll sub again.
    Hey, silver lining time. No more :
    • "You have no idea how long I've been looking for you"
    • "Dragons...In your own homeland...."
    • "How would you like to do something worthwhile?"

    -sigh-. Yeah, this one is not appeased either.

    It's been a very long PTS cycle, but if memory serves, at least Stuga is still looking for your alts.

  • Chamarande
    Chamarande
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    Jaimeh wrote: »
    It's so frustrating and perplexing. Where did all the money from MS go? If the game is so profitable to be aquired by them, then why don't they invest back in it, instead of literally butchering years of the playerbase progression and future replayability in order to cut corners... [...]
    But, you see, Microsoft didn't buy a single game, they bought a company with games portfolios. Which, I guess, they will in the long run make available on their Game Pass. Whether a single game of the portfolio survives is probable of little interest to them, as long as the revenues from the portfolio as a whole justify the purchase price. Do they interfere with the development of ESO? I don't know, but I don't think so. Will they interfere, when ESO flounders? Most likely only to the extent that they will set benchmarks as to the numbers of players and revenue that Zenimax must meet.
    From my long standing business relationship with MS I can only say as much: On the one hand they closely monitor their support forums and take the complaints and recommendations of their customers seriously. But on the other hand, in the moment they have the vaguest impression that a feature or app is losing favour, they will ditch it from one day to another.
    To be blunt: MS doesn't like losers. And to be equally blunt: ESO must perform. Or it will be gone.

    Edited by Chamarande on March 2, 2022 8:20PM
    God is real, unless declared integer.
  • Jaraal
    Jaraal
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    This, so much. Just like that the game changed from being a wonderful escape and help for me to contributing to a negative mental state. I’m not bashing anyone or anything. I’m saying how much I love the game, the world, the characters and how I interact with all of those with my different characters, each of which are important to me with their own stories which have evolved with which quests they’ve done and the characters and world they’ve interacted with along the way.
    Not being able to fully do quests and have all NPC interactions possible on new characters, having the world prize or revile them for choices made with other characters, completely unacceptable, game-breaking and, for me, heart-breaking. :cry:

    That is the worst part for me and I feel like crying myself.

    ESO is not just a game. It's an actual world full of real people where we can make friends and escape the stresses of these past 2 years. Part of that escape is creating characters that we can "become" for a little while when we log in.

    I do realize that our characters aren't "real" but the relaxation and escape they provide is.

    My heart is breaking.

    Pretty sobering, when you realize that money is more important than happiness.

    With the database’s overall footprint reduced, it will more performant across the board, which may manifest itself in faster load screens and improved performance on other database-heavy operations. Most importantly, however, this change helps keep the game performant as we continue to add new content and achievements in the future.

    Note that performance is not promised with this change, it "may" (or may not) occur. But what did they say was most important to them? Yes.... the ability to add new content. New content = more money. And more achievements you can only get once. I wonder what new dialogue there will be from NPCs we pass by with our alts.... who have never gotten an achievement? Will they be called Saviors? Murderers? Heroes? Will they be impressed by the title we selected during the tutorial? Former Emperor? Flawless Conquerer? Master Angler? Godslayer?



    Edited by Jaraal on March 2, 2022 8:49PM
    RIP Bosmer Nation. 4/4/14 - 2/25/19.
  • Kesstryl
    Kesstryl
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    Kesstryl wrote: »

    I wish there was someone higher up I could get in communication with. I can't believe Bethesda, creator of the Elder Scrolls series, is even allowing this. Do they even know?

    From TOS:
    tos wrote:
    If You have any questions about these Terms of Service or otherwise need to contact ZeniMax for any reason, You can reach us at:

    ZeniMax Media Inc. 1370 Piccard Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850 USA

    Attn: ZeniMax Customer Support

    Website: help.bethesda.net

    Telephone:

    From North America dial 1-844-ZENIMAX (1-844-936-4629);

    From outside the U.S., +1-410-220-2853 (International rates may apply, please contact Your carrier for details)

    There's also an email for complaints buried deeply in that, too: ODRnotice@zenimax.com

    Good luck; the way the tos is written expect to be 'thanked for your feedback' - I leave it to your imagination to work out exactly what that means.

    Thank you, I did send an email. I might print the email and send it snail mail too. If this goes through without fixing the NPC random encounters, I'm probably going to call them too. I don't want to see the integrity of the game world destroyed for my alts like this. I've already cancelled my sub, but I would sub again if they fix this. Again @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_MattFiror please decouple random NPC dialogue encounters from account wide achievements and move them to end of zone story arc completion in each individual character's quest log!
    HEARTHLIGHT - A guild for housing enthusiasts! Contact @Kesstryl in-game to join.
  • Techwolf_Lupindo
    Techwolf_Lupindo
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    Wow. This is getting notice by the media due to so many pages on this post.

    I knew there was going to be bugs and is glad they used PTS to find them by the uses.

    It was ok at first, then they added the "by character" and that is what screwing things up. I wanted account wide also, I have some PvP achievements split across characters due to luck during the whitestrick event. This would also prevent "gate keeping" by the endgame players. But that was added back by ZOS with the "earned by" feature. And that feature screws up my account due to a 1%er getting that instead of the character that has 90% progress getting it.

    They way they are doing the conversion from single to account wide has so many bugs it needs to yanked from PTS and reworked to fix over 100 bugs found by the PTS players.
  • SerafinaWaterstar
    SerafinaWaterstar
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    I would be happier if the media actually reported truthfully. The latest thing from ESO hub is rather factually incorrect on many aspects. It really would not be hard for a writer to pm one of the more eloquent posters on this topic and either discuss with them or get them to write something - or is it the done thing now to cobble together something without proper research?
  • alberichtano
    alberichtano
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    Kesstryl wrote: »
    I've been playing around on PTS, unfortunately it's on EU so I couldn't migrate my live toons. I've been playing through Greymoor and got up to a point where NPCs had random dialogue about the Queen's murder. I rolled another alt level 3, and went to the same spot. Those NPCs are definitely tied to quest stages because they didn't appear for my level 3 alt. If they can have NPC specific dialogue fire off quest stages, why can't they do that for any NPC dialogue tied to achievements? All they have to do is move those quest side, and the world would at least make sense again.

    Wouldn't that require the same kind of data as the achievements do now?

    As quests are still tracked per character, they should be able to change the checks which are still against achievements to be against quest completion without producing additional data.

    Yes, but that's not the point. The point is that if it requires new database lists, it would nullify the point of removing character based achievements altogether. If the point is to free up space, then new database requiring lists would be pointless. Then it would be just as good to keep the system as is. Would it not?
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